Lego Cake

I made this Lego cake for Logan (hence the L). He said he wanted chocolate cake. Well, he got it! Chocolate fudge cake with the MOST delicious chocolate frosting! (And yes, I will share this fabulous recipe. It makes a ton, so it definitely needs to be scaled down.) The lego board and legos are made out of modeling chocolate and the little pegs are made with melted candy melts. So Logan is going to get his chocolate fix for his birthday!

And a random side note... I think I've discovered my cake decorating style- I call it modern with a hint of rustic. I really like having something that looks smooth and nice, but I also LOVE having a little bit of the messy frosting showing- that way there is proof that there's something yummy hiding underneath.

Christmas Cookies

I got asked to make two dozen Christmas cookies and I immediately thought of these crunchy, buttery cookies I saw on Pinterest.



Yes, my photography skills still haven't improved.

 And I decided I wanted to try and make these big, soft, fluffy sugar cookies and decorate them with royal icing. This was my first time ever doing royal icing, which was time consuming, but fun. My piping skills are a little rusty, so some of the lines aren't as straight as I would have liked...

My favorite ones are the argyle. I have a slight obsession with argyle.

Oh, and these are the cookies my kids decorated.

Hello Kitty Cake

Miss Ayda told me she wanted a Hello Kitty cake and I was overjoyed! Hello Kitty is SO simple!

Of course, it could have turned out better. But, I thought, instead of making black frosting, I'll just do the outlines in melted chocolate. And it worked pretty well, but the eyes are a little off. Oh well, she's turning 5. She won't even notice.



Then I had some extra melted chocolate left in my piping bag and thought I'd just play around and write things and do designs onto my wax paper. Her name turned out somewhat cute so I thought I'd try transferring them to the cake. Then I added the squiggles... I probably shouldn't have, but too late now.

That's what I like about making a cake for my family... I can try new things and if it doesn't turn out well, who cares?! :) I also tried something new with the frosting... I did the crumb coat layer in pink and the 2nd thin layer in purple. It might just turn out to be a flop. I won't find out until tomorrow... Either way, she's going to like it. And I'm done making the cake before midnight. That's always a plus!

John Deere Cake

I just finished this cake for my little boy that is turning 3 tomorrow. I am SO incredibly excited to show it to him in the morning. He is OBSESSED with John Deere.

 I wanted to go simple with the cake so I just did a 2-layer 8" round with vanilla buttercream and the logo is made out of modeling chocolate. And I must say that I love modeling chocolate! I think I prefer it over fondant... it is so much easier to work with! I got the logo done in one try and didn't have any issues with tearing- not even with the tiny antlers.

Happy Birthday, Bud! 

Treasure Chest Cake

Well... it's been a while! But I got a request for a treasure chest cake and thought I'd take a 2nd stab at making cakes with 3 little kids. And I must say, it's still a little crazy. But I had fun making this cake and trying new things. My neighbor makes AMAZING cakes and uses modeling chocolate (which I had never even heard of before) and I decided to try it out. I LOVE it! It's pretty easy to work with and tastes way better than marshmallow fondant. The chocolate flavor reminds me of tootsie rolls. Yum!

Obviously it's been a while since I've made a cake and I think my skills are a little rusty. There are a few spots on the cake that turned out way below par, but I think overall it turned out pretty good. 

This cake took me a while to make... I worked on it Saturday afternoon (baking and crumb coating, then freezing overnight), Sunday night (frosting, covering with chocolate), and Monday night (finishing touches and assembling). It's 3 layers (two for the base and one for the lid) of white cake with a rich chocolate frosting covered in the modeling chocolate. And it weighs a ton!

Coming up next month: My kids' birthdays! I'm thinking a John Deere logo cake for Toren and a Hello Kitty  cake for Ayda. We'll see.

Twin Smash Cakes

A while back (before cute baby Miles was born) I was asked to do 2 small cakes (2 layer, 6"rounds) for a 1st birthday for cute little twin girls. I thought, sure, we'll see how it goes. I'm glad these were fairly simple cakes because I'm not quite sure we're ready to be making any more cakes yet.  It's a little tricky trying to work around the schedule of a baby who thinks he needs to eat every 2 hours.. And another reason I shouldn't be doing more cakes yet? Severe lack of sleep! I got the cakes posted and then the girls' mom called and said I spelled Sofia wrong ! (I spelled it Sophia... Whoops!) Luckily I saved some of the leftover fondant for my kids to play with later on today, so I got it fixed... and you can't even tell I messed up.  So for now I just need to get a little sleep so my brain can function... but someday we'll be back open for business! :) Eventually... I'll let you know.

P.S. For anyone that hasn't seen yet, this is my cute little bald bundle of joy, Miles. :)

Graduation Cake

Simple Birthday

I was asked to do a birthday cake for a family gathering that would be celebrating their May birthdays.  I was told the cake would be for kids-boys and girls- and adults, and I wasn't given much direction on how to make the cake other than that.  So I decided to make something simple that reminded me of a cute birthday card.  It felt SO good to design this cake myself and not have to worry about making it look exactly like "something".  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!

Leavitt Group Cake

I got an order to do a birthday cake for my husband's boss, Dane Leavitt (CEO of The Leavitt Group).  My husband and Dane's secretary designed it- they wanted to display things that Dane loves.  We decided to put the new Leavitt Group logo on the top.

This is the Leavitt Group sign outside of Headquarters.

  And this is my edible rendition of it.

One thing Dane loves is going to his cabin and ride his Polaris Ranger.   These mountains are the view he has from his cabin.

And this is the fondant version of the mountains that my husband made. (He stayed up late with me (on our 6th anniversary) to help get the cake done! AND he cleaned up the mess after we were done! What a great husband!)

This is the Polaris Ranger Dane got as a surprise at a company holiday dinner a few years ago.  He was so excited!

+

And this is my version of his cabin that he loves so much.  We've heard many stories of him sitting on the porch for hours on end enjoying the view of the mountains.

..

Even though this cake took 12 hours from start to finish (including breaks and dinner and such) and I was SO ready to be done with it, it was fun to do the tiny details like the marbling on the rocks and the paneling on the front door (that you probably can't even see in the picture).

Unfortunately, this is the last intensely intricate cake I will be able to make for a while... Baby #3 is due in just 6 weeks! 

P.S. This cake is 3 layers- 2 yellow and one chocolate, and filled with super yummy chocolate frosting.  I covered it with buttercream and all the decorations are edible (marshmallow fondant)!

Butterlicious Soft Pretzels

Alright, so it's not a cake, but I made it (from scratch) and I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while.  And I am SO GLAD I did.  I cannot stop eating them (I'm on my 3rd one right now!).

These were so delicious and easy to make.  They browned beautifully and after they got out of the oven, they took a swim in melted butter. Oh, and that chunky kosher salt adds that perfect pretzel saltiness!  YUM!

If anybody wants me to make them some then I can figure out a price- somewhere around $10 for a dozen... or less.  We'll see.

 I think I'm ready for pretzel #4 now... Hey, I'm pregnant, I can justify it.  Right? :)


If you want the recipe, I got it here.

UNC Basketball

I was asked to do a birthday cake for a teenage boy who loves North Carolina Basketball, so this is what I came up with.  It's pretty simple and to the point.

It's a white sheet cake and the ball is chocolate cake- all covered in delicious buttercream frosting.

 AND, this is the first fondant-free cake I've decorated in a while and I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out!

I also think the way I made the hand grip stuff on the ball turned out awesome!

P.S. Thanks to my awesome neighbor for letting me borrow her basketball so I could actually know how to make a basketball! :) haha,  I'm still extremely pathetic in the sports department!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

I made myself this deliciously rich cheesecake.  "You made your own birthday cake?!" you may ask...  Of course!  Making it is half the fun!

This cheesecake had 2 cups of melted white chocolate chips mixed in with the batter, which was poured onto an oreo crust.  After it baked and cooled a little, I poured on this yummy homemade raspberry sauce and marbled it with some more melted white chocolate.  YUM!

P.S. I added "quick comments" to my posts... that way you can quickly and anonymously say whether my cakes look awesome or if they were a disaster. Please feel free to check boxes!

Super Mario Bros.

Does this cake bring back childhood memories or what?!

There are lots of pictures... I couldn't miss showing any of the characters I made...

It turned out pretty fun and I think Wyatt is going to have an awesome 6th birthday!

Cupcakes Galore

I was asked to make 5 dozen cupcakes for our ward Relief Society dinner and I got to pick what I made! It was so fun to make something unique and gourmet!

German Chocolate Cupcakes (because when I made that kind of cake a few weeks ago it made me crave it like crazy!)

I think this picture does these cupcakes a horrible injustice...  But OH MY! They were so yummy!  They were a chocolate cake with a cheesecake/mini chocolate chip filling and topped with chocolate ganache!

Red Minnie Mouse

Minnie Mouse sure is popular!  My college roomie, Nat, saw the picture of the pink Minnie Mouse cake and knew that's what she just had to have for her 2-year-old's birthday... but in red.  I added the ribbon because it made it seem so "Nat".

It took about half the time making this cake than the first version of it.  It's nice knowing exactly what I'm doing instead of trial and error.  (example: the first cake took me about 6 tries to make the bow for the top of the cake... but this time I made a cute bow the first time around!  I was so proud of myself.)

Just thought I'd add this, too... My kids think they can get away with anything when I'm working on a cake.  Yep- that's over 100 cookie cutters they threw down the stairs....

Simple Classic

 I made a simple classic cake for a cute girl in my ward.

She wanted a german chocolate cake for her husband's birthday.  And she doesn't even like this kind of cake... now that's love!!

You know how sometimes when you're cooking/baking you test the product to make sure it is okay?  Well, I tested the frosting and all I could think was, "Holy Cow!  This is amazing!!!"  I love when that happens!

Minnie Mouse

Here's a Minnie Mouse cake I just made.

I made a 2-layer 8" round for the family and a 1-layer 6"round replica for the cute little 1-year-old to smash up.

And everything is edible!  The pink is buttercream frosting, the polka dots and bows are marshmallow fondant and the big, shiny ears (which I have to admit were Brady's GENIOUS idea) are homemade suckers!



Outer Space Cake

I was asked to make an outer space/astronaut cake for Xander, who is turning 7.  I was so excited to design and make that I haven't done before!  I think it turned out pretty good. :)

I'm liking my little 3" astronaut I made!